Mark Furler is APN Australian Regional Media’s group digital editor. He’s an award-winning journalist who has lived and worked on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for more than 25 years. He’s passionate about fighting for a better go for locals. His awards include APN Editor of the Year, and involvement in three PANPA Newspaper of the Year wins for the Sunshine Coast Daily.

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl raised the alarm after her mother and another man were brutally slain at a Coolum Beach home overnight.

Neighbours told the ABC they heard multiple gunshots outside a home where two people were murdered and a man was shot by police.

The girl, in the house at the time, ran to a neighbour's house in Yandina-Coolum Road at Coolum around 10pm on Wednesday night telling them two people had been stabbed in the house.

It is understood the alleged offender charged at police while armed with both a knife and a machete.

After he refused to drop the weapons and continued to come at the two officers on the scene, he was shot repeatedly.

One neighbour told ABC television he heard 'five distinct shots'.

The man later died in hospital.

Police remain at the scene of the gruesome double murder, collecting evidence.

The girl was initially cared for by neighbours but is likely to be under the care of extended family or police.

Earlier, the Daily revealed the two people killed inside the Coolum home were said to have been in a long term, stable relationship according to neighbours.

The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered inside a Yandina-Coolum Rd home by police about 10pm on Wednesday after they were confronted with an out-of-control man, believed to be the brother of one of the victim, who failed to comply with a police direction to surrender.

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A senior constable with more than 10 years experience was forced to shoot the man, the police union said.

He later died in hospital.

Neighbours told The Daily the male victim worked as a builder and the female victim worked part time as a cleaner.